Uber rides into conventions

Delegates aren’t the only ones descending on Tampa for the Republican National Convention — there’s also an Uber presence.

The car service — which has set Washington, D.C.’s taxicab industry on its ear — will be there with a ready fleet of slick sedans. Rachel Holt, the general manager of Uber’s branch in the nation’s capital, said the company has already begun partnering with limousine companies in Tampa and Charlotte to offer service at both conventions.

Story Continued Below

And the reason is simple.

“Actually, some folks who work at the conventions reached out to us originally,” Holt said. “They were folks who had used and experienced our services in D.C. and in other cities.”

Uber, the brainchild of three young entrepreneurs, was founded in 2009 in San Francisco — because, CEO Travis Kalanick told The Atlantic, they "wanted to be able to push a button and get a ride."

Here’s how the service works: You install Uber’s app on your smartphone, and then enter your personal information and a credit card number. Once done, you can hail a sedan to your location with the click of a button.

For Tampa and Charlotte, Uber will calculate fares on an $8 base rate, plus an additional charge based either on how far you've gone or how long it takes — a system akin to a taxicab. If you're rolling down the street at a good clip, it's based on distance, to the tune of $4 per mile. But if you're limping along or stuck in traffic, it's based on time — $1 per minute.

Because of county regulations, even quick trips in Tampa will be expensive — the minimum fare is $50. As a yardstick, Uber estimates a trip from Tampa to Brandon at about $65; Tampa to Palm Harbor at about $100. In Charlotte, the minimum fare will be $20.

Uber has the capability to institute "surge pricing" on a case-by-case basis, where a multiplier is added to the price of a fare to handle excess demand and too little supply.

The company now serves 17 U.S. cities, including the nation's capital, where Uber has encountered significant pushback from the taxicab industry.

Uber's Washington trouble started when the city's taxicab commission branded the company an unlicensed taxicab service and began a sting operation where some sedans operating under Uber's umbrella were impounded. The city has since declared Uber legal, but that will only last until the end of the year, when the council will revisit the issue.

The company also has had trouble in other cities, including its home base of San Francisco, where it got flak from San Francisco's Metro Transit Authority and from the California Public Utilities Commission. They charged the company was operating either as an unlicensed taxi or limousine service. Most recently, Massachusetts sent the service a cease and desist letter, charging that its smartphone app wasn't certified as a "measuring device." The state has since reversed its ruling.